1. Filed of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to the use and positioning of a light transmitting element and a light emitting device which allows the length of the conducting stands to be shorter, and the use of light gathering emitter emitting a clear and obvious light for indicating transmission status of the electrical connector by viewing the on/off status of light emitting device on the frontal visible side of the electrical connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
Following the rapid development of information technology and computer technology, advanced computer and notebook computer are continuously developed for providing advanced features, such as faster operating speed, multifunctional, slim, small and compactness. A variety of electrical connectors for use in computers and telephone line for connecting with an internet and/or an intranet server database to retrieve and/or transmit data. However, because of the use of external forces such as pulling force for unplugging the electrical connector from the socket or inserting force for plugging in the electrical connector into the socket physical cause damage, or while the data transmission process is taking place, if the electrical connector is unplugged, damage to the data transmission means within the expensive electrical device occurs. Therefore it is highly desirable to have a signal transmission indicator on the electrical connector to visually display the status of the electrical connector that is linked with expensive electronic devices in order to avoid disconnection of a electrical connector while transmission of data is taking place between an external source and the electronic device via electrical connector. Conventional electrical connector does not have any signal transmission indicator for displaying the signal transmission status. For achieving the foregoing objectives, some developed electrical connectors with light emitting diode. One such type of electrical connector available, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 comprises a light emitting diode mounted inside of the electrical connector with the lead wires soldered to the circuit board at the bottom side inside the electrical connector and a light guide strip is provided in the electrical connector for guiding the light of the light emitting diode directly to the front visible side of the electrical connector. Another conventional type of the electrical connector comprises a light emitting diode disposed inside the housing of the electrical connector and uses a light guiding plate made of light transmission material on the visible side of the electrical connector. Still another conventional type of the electrical connector comprises a light emitting diode directly soldered to the printing circuit at the bottom side inside the electrical connector, and the light guides are provided inside the electrical connector to guide light of the light emitting diode to the visible side (as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7). However, there are several drawbacks from using the electrical connectors mentioned above as described as follows:
1. Extended stand length is required for connecting the light emitting diode directly on the visible side of the electrical connector. Consequently, extension of stand length would easily cause the stand to undesirably deform and bent, and further it is both difficult to manufacture LED with extended stand length and also it is difficult to assemble LED with extended stand length.
2. Every kind of light emitting diode of electrical connector is astigmatic and unable to gather the projected light, the projected light gets dispersed and the light intensity of the light emitting diode reaching the front visible side of the electrical connector is relatively weakened, consequently the light intensity is not sufficient to provide desirable indication.
3. It takes one or more than one reflection to enter into the light guide strips that is located inside the electrical connector, consequently the intensity of the light is relatively weakened as the result of light. Thus, the light intensity is not sufficient to provide desirable indication.
According to the above-mentioned defects to create an improved signal transmission indicator in an electrical connector is highly desirable.
Accordingly, in the view of the foregoing, the present inventor makes a detailed study of related art to evaluate and consider, and uses years of accumulated experience in this field, and through several experiments, to create a new and improved electrical connector with a light emitting device of the present invention. The present invention provides an innovated cost effective electrical connector which can overcome the problems encountered in the conventional electrical connectors as described above.
Accordingly it is another object of the present invention to provide an electrical connector with a light emitting device arrangement wherein the signal transmission status of the electrical connector can be easily visualized by viewing the on/off status of light transmitting device on the frontal visible side of the electrical connector.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an improved electrical connector with a light emitting device arrangement wherein the loss of light intensity due to reflection is avoided. Thus the intensity of light is not relatively weakened providing a clear and obvious light indication on the front visible side of the electrical connector.
In order achieve the above objects and other objects of the present invention, an electrical connector with light emitting device of the present invention is provided. The electrical connector comprises a casing, an insulative housing disposed inside the housing and a light emitting device disposed on top of insulative housing. The housing covers the outer part of the insulative housing, wherein at least a front side of the insulative housing is exposed. The insulative housing comprises two slots disposed on top of the insulative housing. A groove is disposed on a front end of each of the slots. The groove is for fixing a light transmitting element, and the other end of the slot is form an opening.
According to an aspect of the present invention, the light emitting device is a light gathering emitter.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the light emitting device comprises a plurality of conducting stands extending from a distal end. The conducting stands of the light emitting device is bent into a L shape.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the light emitting device is fitted into the slot above the insulative housing in a such a manner that a certain distance is maintained between the light emitting device in the slot and the light transmitting element. The use and positioning of the light transmitting element in the slots eliminates the need of installing directly onto the front visible side of the electrical connector, therefore this arrangement allows the length of the conducting stands to be shorter for extending under the insulative housing, thus the problems from long conducting stands of the light emitting device can be effectively mitigated.
According to another aspect of the present invention, during the actual operation of the electrical, the light emitting device projects gathered light to the light transmitting element which is located at a frontal side of the slot to make the light glow on the front visible side of the electrical connector through the light transmitting element.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the signal transmission status of the electrical connector can be easily visualized by viewing the on/off status of light emitting device on the frontal visible side of the electrical connector.
According to another aspect of the present invention, the light emitting device of the adaptor generates gathered light and projects to the light transmitting device to make the light transmitting element to glow clearly without light astigmatism or reflection by other object thus the intensity of light is not relatively weakened providing a clear and obvious light indication on the front visible side of the electrical connector.